Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty is Monday, April 17, 2017

The 2017 Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty will be held Monday, April 17, 2017, when the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence will hold a hearing on the bills to abolish the death penalty and the bill to ban executions in law of parties cases. Members of Jeff Wood’s family and Kenneth Foster, Jr’s family will testify at the committee hearing in the afternoon and speak at the press conference at noon in the Speaker’s Committee Room 2W.6.

10:00 – Noon Visit legislative offices to lobby legislators to support abolishing the death penalty and banning death sentences in law of parties cases.

Noon Press Conference in the Speaker’s Committee Room (2W.6). Special guests include State Rep. Harold Dutton and State Rep. Jeff Leach, plus Terri Been and other family members of Jeff Wood, who remains on death row convicted under the law of parties, and Lawrence Foster, grandfather of Kenneth Foster, Jr, who won clemency in 1007 after being sentenced under the law of parties.

1 PM Lunch at your own expense in the Capitol cafeteria.

2 PM Hearing on abolition and law of parties bills in Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence E2.014. You can testify verbally, submit written testimony, or just sign in to support the bills without testifying.

People from across Texas will come to the Capitol in Austin on Lobby Day to advocate for three bills to abolish the death penalty in Texas (HB 64 filed by State Rep Harold Dutton and HB 1537 by State Rep Jessica Farrar, as well SB 597 filed by Senator Eddie Lucio, Jr).

We will also lobby for bills that would prohibit death sentences for people convicted under the Law of Parties even though they did not kill anyone (HB 147 by Rep Dutton and HB 316 by Rep Terry Canales). Last summer, Jeff Wood’s scheduled execution under the law of parties was stayed shortly before his scheduled execution. Many legislators spoke out to support clemency for Jeff Wood, because he did not kill anyone. Now, is our chance to pass a bill to prohibit executions under the law of parties.

In the past, our Lobby Day has resulted in several legislators signing on to support the bills we lobbied for. In 2015 we visited the office of Senator Eddie Lucio Jr and asked him to file a bill to abolish the death penalty. He filed his abolition bill two weeks later.

As we do every session, we are calling this the “Day of Innocence” at the capitol. Special guests will include people who were sentenced to death and later exonerated. We will announce who will come soon.

We will visit legislative offices and ask legislators to support abolishing the death penalty. We will hold a press conference at noon. We will also attend the committee hearing starting at 2 PM and testify in support of the bills. Anyone can sign up to testify or you can just sign in as a supporter of the bills without testifying. You can submit written testimony or deliver your testimony verbally in front of the committee members.

This will be a day we will always remember, a day when we stand side by side with innocent people who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death and side-by-side with family members of people sentenced to death under the law of parties.

Please be sure to dress professionally.

The Statewide Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty has been organized since 2003 by several organizations working together: Texas Moratorium Network, Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Kids Against the Death Penalty, and Students Against the Death Penalty.

Organizations that would like to participate or co-sponsor the lobby day can contact any of the above mentioned organizations.

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1 comment for “Statewide Texas Lobby Day to Abolish the Death Penalty is Monday, April 17, 2017”

Kelsey Lawrence

April 21, 2017 at 1:31 pm

I am absolutely disgusted that people have no respect for life. I went to Austin Texas and I heard the state troopers talking about putting three innocent men to death. I asked them “doesn’t it haunt you that these three innocent men were put to death for a crime that they didn’t even commit”? They said “yes”. I said “you need to do something about it”.

San Antonio Express-News
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Jeff's family, friends and supporters are organizing a campaign to save him by convincing the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Greg Abbott to grant clemency to Jeff and to commute his death sentence to a lesser term in prison.

We need to raise funds to help us with expenses we will incur during the clemency campaign. We are planning rallies and press conferences to convince the public to support clemency for Jeff. We need funds to pay for printing, postage, travel, hosting death row exonerees and others to speak out for Jeff, as well as other unforeseen expenses.